1899
season 1 released on Netflix last week, and many of the fans who tuned in to watch Baran
Bo Odar and Jantje Friese's new show, have come out of it with many questions towards what
will happen in a season 2, if another season does go ahead. I've been thinking about the show and
the ending a lot since I finished watching it and in this video, I'm going to be
discussing my Season 2 theories and talking about the biggest questions that Season 1 left us with.
There will be spoilers in this video, so if you haven't watched the entirety of
season 1, then I would recommend checking it out before watching my analysis. Before I get into
it though, if you want to see future videos on 1899, then don't forget to support this
upload by giving it a like rating, subscribing to the channel and turning on your notifications. But
without further a do, lets dive into the season 2 theories and biggest questions
from 1899.
So in the ending of 1899, we learnt that the mysterious man, Daniel, who actually turned
out to be Maura Franklin's husband, had altered codes and gave Maura the power of waking up
after transferring the key from a black pyramid, that Maura's father Henry got his hands on,
to a more toy-like pyramid that he possessed. The key became maura's ring, which held the
exit code, and it would mean that Daniel allowed Maura to exit the simulation and
wake up in reality. Or as I'll come to later on, what we currently know as reality. Before she did
exit though, Daniel revealed to her that her brother Ciaran was in control of the whole system,
and even after trying to help her escape, her brother didn't agree to this happening
for a yet unknown reason. Daniel hinted that the whole structure was much bigger than she
could imagine, and his wife was left to wonder whether he would be there when she wakes up,
after the ambiguous reply that he will always be with her. Whether that means just in spirit
or that she'll have to help him herself, is now up for debate, but it's the moment that
follows which really could be hinting at much more down the line. When Maura wakes up
in a spaceship and realizes that a project named Prometheus is being run by her brother, she also
notices other important details that definitelly lead us further down the rabbit hole. She sees
a note that reads, “May your coffee kick in before reality does”, which was the same
words that were written in every present the passengers recieved on board the Kerberos in
the 1899 simulation. There's also a message on a monitor revealing that there were 1423
passengers and 550 crew members on the project and another message from Ciaran, notifying his
sister that he already knew she had escaped the simulation. With Daniel mentioning that
this was much bigger and Ciaran knowing about her escape then there's the chance that she
hasn't got out of the simulation and this may be another level to a deeper game. But on the
flipside, it might be possible that Ciaran let this happen on purpose, realising that her time
inside the sim has ended and a need for her to be out of it, in turn, maybe moving on to
the mission's survival project. So either the spaceship is the actual reality and the 1899
sim was the training needed for something much larger, or the message and this new setting are
just more deception, and this is a simulation within a simulation. Like dreams within dreams
from Inception shall we say. The spaceship might have been a creation of Ciaran, just like
Maura had created her own safe haven in the 1899 location, keeping her son, Elliot, alive. We
would have to think that it would be revealed in a Season 2 whether Maura was actually in
the real world or not, and hopefully it will really link into something more impactful from
a storytelling perspective. The Dark creators have a history of taking complex themes and
topics and interweaving them into a striking point that they want to make. And while 1899
season 1 gave us a lot of individual character beats and questions about what reality actually
is, I think much of the later reveals will make the story's message even clearer.
So now we've reached that 2099 timeline, what can we expect to be answered in a season 2 of
the show and what do I think we could see. Well one thing to mention from that final scene is
that none of Maura's family members, whether it be Daniel, Elliot or Henry, were in the
simulation pods surrounding hers. The people who were there were Angel, Ramiro, Captain Eyk,
Tove, Krester, Iben, Anker, Ling Yi, Yuk Je, Clemence, Lucien and Jerome. But also,
near the window of the ship, there was that empty pod that has got a lot of fans debating over the
week since season 1 aired. Now it could be likely that Henry, Daniel, or Elliot was
in that pod prior to Maura waking up or it could also be possible that it's someone else, such as
Henry’s assistant Sebastian. Or to make things even more interesting, what if this was actually
Ciaran himself. He might have found a way to wake himself up and then afterwards take
control of project prometheus. From the start of the show, Maura believed that Ciaran was
on the ship named the Prometheus, and it could be possible that this was a simulation that
Ciaran was a part of during previous loops, eventually breaking out and taking control
within the contruct of something much larger. What I'm sugegsting is that maybe Ciaran is not
against Maura in the way that others thought, and maybe he helped to wake her up and join
him on the next hunt to escape the even bigger structure in place. Maura was mentioned as the
creator of the sim, but that doesn't mean that it could just be a case of her orchestrating
it all and her brother being a part of that too. She wanted to keep Elliot alive, which
would be a good enough reason on it's own towards her staying in the simulation. While
we don't have a concrete answer towards much of this and specifically about who might have
been in that empty pod, I'm gonna predict it was Ciaran and I think that her family might
have been projected inside the sim to help her escape. With them not being present in the pods
too, this leads me to think that it was Ciaran's doing in putting them in the sim to aid the
process of escape. Again though if this does turn out to be close to the case, we would
still have that big question of: is this suppossed new reality the real one? Well, it was displayed
on the monitor that Project Prometheus was a survival mission from one location to
another, with the latter likely being the co-ordinates for a far-away planet. With it
being set in the year 2099, and thinking about the big messeges that these creators like to strive
for, the situation on Earth might currently be quite deadly for sustaning life, and we
could be looking at some kind of test for those who want to create another reality. The first
season focussed on characters struglling to overcome their past while striving for a new
life in the never-reaching promissed land. And if they then connected that opening story point
to a story idea surrounding what the future of reality could be,
then I think something like this might be impactful. Or for all we know,
this could be completely wrong and instead, the time spent in the 1899 simulation was the
only way to survive the journey to wherever they are heading. Could be either or something else,
but again I come back to the point of how does this serve the story going forward.
The main thing to take away and this is something that the creators hinted at in the
making of documentary on Netflix, is that 1899 was structured around a single idea. And that is the
notion that there is a difference between our perception of reality and what reality really
is. I mentioned this in my explained video last week, but more specificaly, the series
built its foundations upon Plato’s Allegory of the Cave theory. Of course, the ship’s passengers
on board the Kerberos, took what was shown to them as their reality, but their idea of
reality was flawed. They were stuck in a simulation with fake memories, but we don't
know if those fake memories relate to their other real-world lives. They didn’t realize that the
world outside might be the real one. They essentially saw shadows portrayed symbolically
on the walls of a cave, which is basically the prisoners in Plato's cave allegory. And with
this theory being included in the first season and even spoken of, it opens a lot of possible
avenues for a Season 2, if we do eventually get one. While you could leave the story at
the end of season 1 and let the viewer and characters continuously question reality
in a cycle, the idea of actually getting answers links into what Henry says in the season about
Maura when she's younger, finding the allegory of the cave and asking questions about its meaning.
So if there is something behind the shadows, then we must ask: who created the cave,
and what it outside of it? Henry replies in the show saying it's God, but we ourselves can go a
step further and ask the question... Well, who created God? While Henry tells Elliot
that Maura created the simulation, it's at this moment where he could very well be adding to the
idea that they're all inside another simulation past this one. Simulation theory is the
notion that the universe is one big simulation and you end up coming across infinite simulations,
simply because the logical thought or technology behind one sim is enough to mean that
there are multiple sims layered. With one simulation possible, an infinite amount
becomes possible, and you can never be quite sure whether the current situation is indeed reality.
With the showrunners saying that the show highlights a difference between our perception
of reality and what really actually is, maybe what we are seeing here is a show about
individuals who eventually work out that there are layers upon layers of simulations.
They would question their existence, who god is, whether a true reality actually exists and just
like Dark, it would go beyond the traditional exploration of the show's central themes. I
think they are going to do something like this, but in a way where we get reveals surrounding
characters and the reality that we are currently questioning in the show. I don't think they want
this to turn out like Lost or Westworld in that we end it or finish it's run with
little answers towards the more complex talking points at play. And I do think that
the simulation theory at the base of this show, will slowly reveal itself in the seasons ahead.
But whatever the case turns out to be, a Season 2 would likely bring some well needed answers and
make us much more in the know when it comes to what is actually happening on 1899.
But that was my breakdown and theories discussion for 1899 season 2. Again, I thought the first
season was a brilliant opening for Bo Odar and Friese's new show, and if a potential
season 2 can build upon the first season's questions and start to answer them in satisfying
ways, then just like Dark, I think they are on track to deliver another mind-bending classic
in the years ahead. They've given us something different with 1899, and I hope that season 2 and
maybe a season 3 can really keep us invested throughtout and deliver the payoff that we
will hopefully crave. But to those who have seen 1899 Season 1, what are your thoughts on
all the events that went down and where do you think the show is going in season 2? Let me
know down below in the comments section. For more videos on Netflix's 1899, then subscribe
to the channel and turn on your notifications. Also if you enjoyed this video remember to leave
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But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.